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Nicosia reacts to Erdogan’s ‘flag’ comments

Nicosia has reacted to controversial remarks by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan who on Tuesday slammed Cyprus for using its flag as representative of the whole island.

“With comments like these, the Turkish president is sending the worst possible signal at a crucial stage of the [peace negotiation] process and he only succeeds in creating more problems,” Cyprus government spokesman Nicos Christodoulides said Wednesday.

“You can’t have a flag like that when the TRNC is there,” Erdogan told the 7th Annual Bosporus Summit on Tuesday, referring to the breakaway Turkish-Cypriot state, adding that the Greek Cypriots use their flag at European Union summits “without shame.”

“You are the Greek-Cypriot administration of southern Cyprus. In the north, there is a Turkish republic, you see – one way or another they will learn and understand,” he said, describing the Greek Cypriots as “rude.”

Erdogan’s comments came in the wake of his recent repeated references to the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, which set the borders between Greece and Turkey, as “unfair” and after last week’s breakdown of United Nations-backed Cyprus reunification talks at the Swiss resort of Mont Pelerin.